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Liam Fay: Airport controllers aren’t the only ones living in ivory towers

Altitude sickness: that's the kindest explanation for last week's reckless behaviour by air traffic controllers who brought the nation's airports to a standstill with a self-indulgent four-hour strike. The higher one ascends, the thinner the air gets, so perhaps the aviation controllers have spent too long in their lofty control towers and their senses are suffering. Though professionally required to have impeccable eyesight, hearing and spatial awareness, they seem alarmingly blind and deaf to the far-reaching harm caused by their actions.

At a time of rising unemployment, falling living standards and economic uncertainty, only those who feel secure in their jobs can afford the luxury of industrial disputes. The determination of public-sector and semi-state unions to pursue disruptive action against government pay cuts simply highlights their self-exile from reality. However, the blitheness with which they're prepared to throttle what remains of commercial life in other sectors amounts to something more